A Sure Thing
by Milo J7
Summary: As the Clone Wars plunge the galaxy into darkness and the Jedi struggle to win the conflict without sacrificing the Republic in the process, an unseen hand thrusts the Global Defence Initiative into the war. The Galaxy will never be the same as hidden sides fight a war in the shadows to control the destiny of trillions. Rated T for violence and language.
1. Prologue

Little idea I had the other day, hope you enjoy this and what's to come.

As the forces of the GALACTIC REPUBLIC begin to turn the tide against their enemy, the CONFEDERACY OF INDEPENDENT SYSTEMS, on battlefields across the galaxy the Separatists' leader COUNT DOOKU shows that while the odds are against him, he and his allies are far from defeated by striking at the lightly defended TAURUS SECTOR, which place the Separatists in position to strike deep into the Republic controlled MID RIM.

The Republic's Territory is separated from all but three of the Taurus Sector worlds by the systems of the neutral GLOBAL DEFENSE INITIATIVE. So as the Jedi Council assembles to discuss this new development they dispatch OBI-WAN KENOBI to GDI's capital on Earth to negotiate for the passage of the Republic's fleets through their space or maybe even, they hope, to bring the small but militarily powerful nation into the war.

* * *

In the depths of the JediTemple several masters were debating how to deal with this latest hiccup in their plans to take the war to the Separatists' core worlds. Only five of them were physically present, the war had taken the Jedi's greatest members far from their temple on Coruscant and the rest, bar Master Fisto who was currently in the midst of a battle and couldn't be drawn away, were present via hologram.

"Bodes ill for us, this does" Yoda, smallest but perhaps most powerful of the beings present said "Draw troops from other sectors we must. The Core Worlds, vulnerable they may become"

"Has the Chancellor said anything to the senate?" Mace Windu asked

"No, letting the news spread before the morning session, he is. Viable response formulated before the session, he wants" Yoda replied

"Has GDI made any kind of public statement" Shaak Ti asked

"Only their usual message, they're neutral and any attempt to breach their space will be considered an act of war" Windu replied before turning to Obi-Wan Kenobi's hologram "Obi-Wan, how long will it be until you make contact with them?"

"We received a transmission from GDI's diplomatic corps an hour ago, they won't let me take my own ship to Earth so they've provided transport. My fighter will be kept on GDS New Beijing, the ship that's to transport me to Earth, while I meet with their leadership. My concern though is the Titan refugees, GDI will want an assurance that we'll surrender them before they even think about any making concessions to us"

Windu frowned, the status of the mutant refugees from the Titan incident had been the barrier between the Republic and GDI's diplomatic relations since the latter had made first contact. The problem was that the refugees who had made it to the Republic had claimed asylum with the local world Zathrian, which had fallen on hard times after GDI's economy began to dominate the sector market, and was therefore unwilling to surrender the refugees to GDI or the Republic, which had always made it clear that it would surrender them to GDI.

"Zathrian is heavily pro-Republic, if make it clear that they're in danger of falling under Separatist occupation they may surrender the refugees to our control" Shaak Ti said "One of my battle groups is in the area, if Zathrian's government agrees they can pick them up and deliver them to one of GDI's border stations"

"Agree I do" Yoda said as the other Masters nodded in agreement as well "Go to the Chancellor, I will. His help I will require to convince the Zathrian government"

"The diplomatic corps said that they'd allow me to access the holonet, so contact me as soon as you have word on the refugees" Obi-Wan said before he signed off

With crisis one of the day dealt with the other masters began to discuss the war's dozens of other front lines and how to deal with them, meanwhile Yoda departed the strategy room for the Temple's hanger.

* * *

An hour later, Yoda was seated in Supreme Chancellor's office awaiting the arrival of Zathrian Senator, Dill Blackas.

"Master Yoda, have the Jedi considered any other options if negations with the Global Defence Initiative fail" Palpatine asked

"Other options we have, but our best choice passage through their space is" Yoda replied

"Have you considered taking conquering passage through their territory, they continue to trade with the Separatists and that was sufficient for us implement a legal blockade of Valahari. Their technology is inferior to ours in many ways it may prove to be an easy victory"

"True, but heavily fortified we believe their worlds to be and little information of their full capabilities we have, fifty years since first contact to improve their military they have had. To attack GDI without more information, foolishness it would be"

"But how does the prospect of taking the three heavily fortified worlds leading to the Taurus sector compare to…" Palpatine stopped speaking and stood up as the door beeped and the Senator they had been expecting entered

He bowed to Palpatine and looked to Yoda then greeted them "Chancellor, Master it is good to see you"

"And you my old friend" Palpatine replied with a warm smile "I believe you can guess why we have called you here"

"Indeed" Blackas replied as he sat down, his own smile now replaced with a frown "My people are quite worried about where the Separatists will strike next and I have been asked what the Grand Army's response will be"

"Reveal all I cannot, but your cooperation, vital it is, to the plans in motion" Yoda replied

"Anything Zathrian can do to help the war effort we shall do. You both know we are firmly behind the Republic"

"Of course Dill" Palpatine said, his warm smile still on his face "That's why we need your government to hand over the refugees from the Titan incident to the Jedi"

There was a barely noticeable twitch in the Senator's brow before he replied "I will have to consult with my government. Do you have any intelligence that may allow me to convince them that this is the right course, the refugees have become a focal point for a great deal of nationalism"

"Passage through GDI's space we require, without the surrender of the Titan refugees achieved this cannot be. If flank the Separatists we cannot then needed a military build up for an offensive will be needed, weaken other fronts and leave the Republic vulnerable this will" Yoda said

"Very well, I will need to contact Zathrian" the Senator said as he stood up to leave "Chancellor, Master Jedi"


	2. The Negotiator And The Captain

Ladies and Gentlemen, in this corner commanded by the Hero with no Fear, the pride and joy of the Republic's fleet, the progeny of one of Science Fiction's most iconic warships, the Venator class star destroyer, KUAAAAAAT. And opposing this mighty vessel, something completely new to the scene, commanded by a nameless disciple of the messiah, the product of a bored mind and one to many C&C3 play throughs, the newest addition to the arsenal of, the BROTHERHOOD OF NOOOOOOOOOOD.

Also tech rundown and an examination of just how much the Republic knows about GDI

* * *

As Obi-Wan was approaching the coordinates where he was supposed to meet the GDS New Beijing he got the message from Shaak Ti. The Zathrian government had agreed to hand over the refugees to the Jedi, which was why Obi-Wan's former apprentice Anakin Skywalker had gone to Zathrian, under the law an actual Jedi, rather then a designated proxy, had to take the mutants into custody. The local government would deliver the mutants to Anakin's star destroyer the _Kuat, _which he had borrowed from Master Shaak Ti's fleet, using a shuttle then the Jedi would turn the mutants over to GDI in the uninhabited Kraken system, which they had claimed and begun a large scale mining operation in.

Everything had been gone well in the beginning, the refugees on Zathrian had been rounded up by the locals. The shuttle had taken off without difficulty and was only two minutes away from the _Kuat, _when a vessel had suddenly appeared a few thousand metres to starboard. It's hull was black and round, with some kind of red crystal or glass embedded across the ship, it gave it the appearance of some kind of giant, space faring beetle. The ship was only half the length of Anakin's Venator class ship but while the _Kuat_ was long and not very tall the mystery vessel was almost as tall and wide as it was long. It hadn't responded to hails and when a flight of fighters from the _Kuat _tried to approach it, lasers had lashed out and destroyed them and it had begun to close in on the shuttle.

"Lock turbolasers onto the ship. Launch all fighters, protecting that shuttle is the priority" Anakin ordered, normally he would run to his own fighter and join the fight but today he was in command and that meant staying on the bridge and directing things from afar.

"Sir, weapons are unable to achieve target lock, the damn ship keeps disappearing and repapering on sensors" a clone told him

"Switch to visual targeting if you have to, give it your best guess" Anakin replied. Clones shooting by sight didn't offer anywhere near the accuracy of computer controlled guns that used the ship's sensors to hit their targets but a few hits were better then no hits at all. "Fourth and third squadron are to escort the shuttle to our hanger, get all our other fighters to engage that ship"

The _Kuat_ rumbled as a trio of lasers hit its shields and stayed focused on the ship for several seconds before they cut off. In return the star destroyer fired off a full broadside from its turbolaser batteries, including four of the massive DBY-827 dual turbolasr turrets that flanked the bridge tower. About two thirds of the shots missed and those that hit impacted on the ship's shield.

"Report, what's their shield status" Anakin asked the clones manning the sensor stations

"No Kriffin clue sir, it's not a ray or particle shield I think it might be some kind plasma but the ship isn't giving me any clear readings"

"Okay then" Anakin thought for a moment then ordered "Bring our engines to full power, get as close to that ship as you can, give our gunners an easier time"

"Sir, the Zathrian Law Enforcement Authority has dispatched a squadron of cruisers. They're two minutes out" a clone reported as the enemy fired its lasers again and the _Kuat_ responded in kind.

As the _Kuat_ turned to present its bow to the enemy something began tearing through their fighters the republic pilots began to see ghosts on their sensors and within moments the pilots realised that they weren't alone as small, stealthy ships that shared the same colour scheme as their much larger enemy began to attack fighters on the outside of the Republic formation. Squadrons broke off to engage the new enemy but even as a few of the strange fighters, which attacked using smaller versions of the lasers the larger ship used, were destroyed the sensor ghosts seemed to multiply to the point that it seemed there were thousands of fighters hunting the mere one hundred and fifty republic ships.

When the _Kuat_ got to within five hundred kilometres and brought its guns to bear, it didn't matter that the fighter attack was faltering because now the star destroyer had effectively doubled it firepower and even the enemy's fast movements when it disappeared from sensors failed to save it from the sheer volume of fire that was directed at it.

On the _Kuat's _bridge Anakin ordered "All batteries fire at will. Where's the shuttle"

"Thirty seconds away sir" A clone replied "Hold on sir"

"What, what is it" Anakin said, he could sense confusion and fear coming from the clone

"The shuttle sir it's gone, there was a burst of radiation and now it's gone so are the escort fighters"

Anakin frowned, trying to imagine what had taken out all those ships simultaneously when he was thrown to the floor of the bridge by an explosion that rocked the ship.

"Report, what hit us" he shouted

"Some kind of explosive Sir, gave same burst of radiation as whatever hit the shuttle. I don't know how but it bypassed our shields and hit the hyperdrive dead on and did a lot of damage to the engines" a clone reported

Anakin thought about it for a moment, then he mentally connected the dots and realised the enemy's intention. They had been specifically targeting the Titan refugees and now they had disabled the _Kuat's_ hyperdrive.

"What's that ship doing now?" Anakin asked, although he was pretty sure he already knew

"No idea sir, it's off sensors but our guns don't seem to be hitting anything. I think it's moved away" a clone replied

"Alright then" Anakin said "Recall our fighters and get a laat/i over to the shuttle's last position, tell the crew to keep an eye out for the flight recorder"

"Yes sir" a clone replied "Anything else sir"

"Yes, tell the head engineering I want a report on the status of our hyperdrive as soon as possible. If anyone needs me I'll be in the communications room"

* * *

Obi-Wan had gone over all the intelligence the Republic had on the Global Defence Initiative as he waited for the GDS New Beijing to arrive at the rendezvous coordinates he'd been given, it wasn't much and going through the files had taken a while, he hadn't been allowed to bring his astromech droid along so he had to filter out a lot of the less useful information himself. The Republic's only solid knowledge of their military capabilities came from the Titan incident half a century ago, the occasional anti-pirate action outside their territory and reports from traders who'd caught rare glimpse of GDI vessels while delivering and receiving goods, because of how traders were restricted in their movements during the time in GDI's space though it painted a very incomplete, and sometimes conflicting, picture.

Some patterns had been discerned from the reports and the small battles though. GDI favoured ships focused on durability and straight up firepower, with fighters working to protect their mothership in combat rather then acting as one of the ship's primary weapons. For armaments they seemed to have developed mass drivers to the point that they were equal to, or some said even more powerful, plasma weapons the Republic and Separatists favoured and their ion weapons caused electronics to fuse and short out just like the Republic's but also delivered a massive amount of thermal and kinetic energy onto their target, a capability that had never been matched by the weapons Obi-Wan's people had developed and their missiles were usually far more power then their equivalents in the Republic arsenal and were launched in massive swarms, to overwhelm defences and deliver massive amounts of damage.

During the Titan incident and in the following months the Republic had built up a file of the ships employed by GDI, identifying sixteen distinct classes and between eighty and one hundred and fifty individual ships. Then a year after the incident all but two of those classes disappeared from the sighting reports within two months and twelve new ones began to appear, twelve years ago it had happened again and one final time a year ago, the entire set of old classes had disappeared and fourteen new ones had been identified since. There were two differing opinions as to how the rapid change happened, the first was that GDI had built up a stockpile of new ships and put them all into service while at the same time decommissioning their old ones, the other, which was considered more worrying, was that GDI had been able to rapidly design, build and deploy enough ships to replace their entire navy within a few months.

Of their ground forces the Republic had even less information, they had been able to make estimates based on the equipment corporations within GDI's territory exported. Like their ships they made use of mass drivers, although their rifles were mostly primitive ballistic weapons with the occasional large and bulky railgun making it into the galactic market. Their infantry was believed to use a mix of advanced body armour, which had been found to be superior to the similar clone armour in resisting projectile impacts and biological and chemical attacks, and large and bulky powered armour that featured an integrated jetpack, which Republic intelligence believed was issued to an elite unit within GDI's miltiary. GDI also manufactured tanks and walkers that were believed to be used in the field along similar lines to their Republic counterparts but were very heavily armoured, with multiple redundant systems and used ballistic and railgun weapons where the Clone Army would have used blasters.

As for their government, it was known that GDI's leader was called the General Secretary and that he was elected but how democratic the Secretary's election actually was and how the government beneath him was structured was like many things about GDI, a mystery. They knew from the Titan refugees how GDI had come into existence, an asteroid impact had introduced a virulent crystal called Tiberium to their home world and GDI had been established to combat the crystal and the Brotherhood of Nod, a religion that had viewed the crystal and its spread as the key to unlocking the next stage of human evolution. According to the refugees though after Nod's leader, the seemingly immortal Kane, had disappeared while tampering with a tower constructed by the non human Scrin, who sounded like fearsome opponents from the refugees descriptions, Nod had fractured and evolved into several religions that varied from very charitable organisations dedicated to helping the helpless to violent terrorists who sought to bring down GDI and allow Tiberium to spread over every planet in the galaxy. Almost half of GDI's population followed Nod in one way or another.

Obi-Wan sat back in his fighter and sighed, usually he knew more about the people he was expected to negotiate with. He had begun to think that his reputation was causing people to think that he could talk his way out of situations that he practically couldn't, it wasn't a case of waving his hand and mind tricking his opponents into immediate compliance but a measured process of getting small concessions that together achieved his overall goal.

His thoughts were interrupted by a beeping on the sensors, a ship had appeared almost four thousand metres off his fighter's bow, and surprisingly it hadn't given off any sign of its exit from hyperspace. It was unmistakably a GDI vessel, it had little artistry or decoration beyond the GDI emblem, a striking bird of prey with its talons outstretched and its sandy yellow hull paint. It had a large, triangular middle, that reminded the Jedi of an Acclimator class ship, with a thick neck section that connected the centre to a large bulge, in the middle of which was the obvious opening of the ship's main ion weapon, a second neck on the stern ended in a second rectangular section which featured two large engine pods, striking out from the sides were what looked like atmospheric wings, with the necessary flaps, which end in two more engine pods and rising from the central section was a tall, square bridge tower that was flanked on all sides by several of the ship's missile silos. Overall it was blocky and gave the impressing of a tough and functional ship, but its shields were preventing him from getting any detailed scans if the interior, it wasn't a ray or particle shield but it definitely appeared to be a kind of protective bubble around the ship. If he compared it to the intelligence files it was a Kane class, it probably wasn't the class's actual name but the first GDI ship of its type recorded had had GDS Kane printed on its hull and the name had stuck.

"Republic fighter, this is the GDS New Beijing. Am I speaking to General Kenobi?" the ship broadcasted over subspace

"This is General Obi-Wan Kenobi" Kenobi replied

"Follow the flight path we're transmitting to you General, it will bring you to our hanger" the New Beijing transmitted

"Roger New Beijing" Obi-Wan said he gave his fighter's controls a light nudge. As he approached two fighters launched from the GDI ship and took up position above and behind him, considering that most of the ship's weapons were already locked onto him it was most definitely overkill but according to Republic Intelligence GDI's military seemed to favour the 'make sure its dead' approach, several pirate bases had been bombarded to atoms after GDI hit them. The fighters may have been new, they weren't like anything in the intelligence files.

The hanger Obi-Wan was directed to was located beneath the starboard wing, and as he approached the GDI fighters broke off to land in a hanger on the opposite side of the ship. As his fighter passed through the atmospheric shields and began to touch down he noticed that the entire hanger had been emptied except for twenty two people, all but two of which were wearing large suits similar to the power armour GDI exported, a little bit of information he filed away to give to Republic intelligence later. He sensed some fear and hatred emanating from the humans but a few of them also felt genuinely exited. The armoured humans formed two lines of ten on both sides of his fighter while the two unarmoured humans stood at the end of the lines.

As Obi-Wan got out of his fighter a whistle held by one of the humans not in power armour sounded a high tune, then an even higher tune before every one of the soldiers brought their weapons to their sides and saluted forward and the whistle blower shouted, as he stepped onto the hanger floor "General on deck"

As Obi-Wan started to walk down the corridor created by the soldiers the human not holding the whistle walked towards him. When they met in the middle the human extended his hand and said "General Kenobi, I'm Captain Tucker commanding officer of the New Beijing"

Obi-Wan took his handshake and replied with a forced smile "A pleasure Captain"

"If you'll follow me General, we've got a guest room that's been set aside for you. It has holonet access for you to use but you should know General that anything you say will be recorded"

"Thank you Captain"

The Captain turned around and ordered "XO, dismiss company"

The man with the whistle blew another tune then shouted "Company, dismissed"

As the soldiers began to leave the hanger with heavy thumps from their armour, the Captain said "If you'll follow me to your quarters General"

"Lead the way" Obi-Wan replied as the General lead him out of the hanger and into a corridor, then up a ladder of all things and down another corridor, the two men didn't speak during the walk. The ship was much more cramped then Obi-Wan was used to with the corridors usually being two metres across. The Captain showed him to a room that was as spartan as the quarters given to ship crews in the republic navy, it featured a bed, desk and computer screen and a door that lead to a separate bathroom.

The Captain placed his hand on a touch screen by the door and said "If you feel hungry General press the blue button and ask for the mess hall, they'll send something to your room and I'm going to have to ask you to stay in your room unless you're called for. My government has given me authorisation to shoot you if you are found in vital areas of the ship"

"Of course Captain, thank you" Obi-Wan replied, at least GDI was being up front with their hostility, if they were still serious about negotiations it meant he probably didn't have to go through the investigating their intentions part later.

It took him a few moments to find the button that activated his room's computer system, he didn't recognise the symbol on its power button, but GDI had been kind enough to switch its operating system, something called Doorways, to the galactic basic language setting. He logged into holonet and linked to the Jedi council, pictures of the other Jedi Masters appeared on his 2D screen along with a picture of his former apprentice.

"Anakin good, have you secured the Titan refugees" Obi-Wan asked, without those refugees his entire effort would be wasted.

The young knight frowned and replied "I'm sorry master but there's been a problem"

Obi-Wan nodded as Anakin told him about the events of the attack on the _Kuat_ and the destruction of the shuttle. Including that two mutants had survived, their unique physiology rendering them resistant to vacuum and not needing oxygen, they had been taken to the _Kuat _which would deliver them to the Kraken system only a few hours behind schedule. Obi-Wan signed off as the others moved on to other business that wasn't for GDI's ears, namely what to do about the Separatists' new stealth warships.


	3. The Prophet And The General

During the trip to Earth Obi-Wan never left his quarters, and as the Captain said he needed only to contact the ship's mess hall and the food was delivered to him. During the four meals he had during the two day trip he learned that GDI fed its men much better then the Republic did. The first time he hadn't known any of the dishes that were being served so the Chef chose a meal for him, a meat dish called roast lamb which had been served with a variety of roasted vegetables and a thick, brown sauce on top. The second meal had been several fried slices of one of the vegetables from dinner with a fried egg from an animal called a chicken and a several salty slices of fried meat, with it had been a bottle of a sweet orange juice. The third, a few hours before the New Beijing arrived in Earth's solar system, had been noodles with pieces of meat from several aquatic animals and a sweet and sour sauce. The forth meal had been roast lamb again, much better then Republic ration packs the second time.

A few minutes after he finished the last noodle with a slurp there was a beep from the door, it opened to reveal one of the armoured GDI soldiers, who of course had his large projectile rifle. He saluted and "Sir, the ship will be at Earth in a few minutes, I've been asked to bring you to the hanger."

"Of course, just one moment" Obi-Wan replied as he grabbed his cloak off the chair he'd hung it on. As he was escorted to the ladder that lead down to the hanger deck he caught occasional glimpses of feelings and thoughts from a group people who were moving alongside the Jedi and his escort in a parallel corridor, probably a backup security team. Just like when he had come aboard the hanger deck was empty, his fighter had been moved off to the side of the cavernous space and where it had been a shuttle now stood. The only other people present were several GDI crewman checking the shuttle and Captain Tucker, in a white uniform with a hat, on his lapels and the front of the hat was a gold GDI crest.

"General" Captain Tucker greeted him, with a handshake just as he had when the Jedi had first come aboard "Please follow me."

"Are you coming with me Captain?" Obi-Wan asked as the two of them and his escort walked up the back ramp of the shuttle, he'd assumed that the Captain would remain on the New Beijing while he met with the General Secretary.

"Just for the drop ship flight General" the Captain replied as they took their sets and the ship's rear door sealed itself "I'm attending a ceremony on Luna, Earth's moon, this afternoon."

"Really, what's the ceremony" Obi-Wan asked, anything the Tucker was attending might prove to be something Republic intelligence was interested in.

"My promotion to General" The Captain replied with a grin, Obi-Wan could feel the man's excitement quite clearly "It was confirmed a week ago but today it becomes, in fact taking you back to Republic space is going to be my last mission with the New Beijing, after that I'm going to take command of something a bit bigger then a destroyer."

"Congratulations then."

"Thanks, you know if you want General you can watch our approach on the screen beside you" The Captain replied as he pulled a flat computer screen, similar to the one Obi-Wan had been given in his quarters on the New Beijing, out of a recess in the wall. Tucker fiddled with the controls for a moment then handed the device to Kenobi. The view was half of Earth's night side, which allowed the Jedi to see the cities of the world lit up by their lights on the day side though, Obi-Wan could see a large, bright green patch that stretched across the left side of Earth's main continent, the colour wasn't like any kind of jungle, it just seemed off especially as most of Earth was a pale brown desert, with very few slices of green that Obi-Wan could tell were forests near the cities.

"Captain, what's that area there?" the Jedi asked

"Where?" Tucker replied and Obi-Wan placed his finger just below the green patch "Oh that's the Zone."

"What is it?"

"Well, let me think for a sec there's quite a bit of history behind it. You know about Tiberium and Tib mutants right?"

"Yes, according to the people from the Titan it was a crystal that was introduced to your world by a race you called the Scrin."

"Right, what about the Tiberium Control Network?"

"I know that it controls the spread of the substance but little else."

"Okay, well when TCN came online there were some people that were opposed to it, mainly mutants and some of the Brotherhood of Nod. Even after it was brought online and the Tiberium contaminated zones were disappearing there were mutants and some Nod forces that didn't fold into GDI that kept trying to take out TCN, a lot of these guys got together because they thought Tiberium should be allowed to flourish, there was a lot of prejudice against mutants and the Nod holdouts back then so GDI's response was mostly zap them from orbit with an ion cannon. So as the mutant population built up in the populated areas the amount of violence against them increased but most mutants are stronger and faster then humans so a lot of idiots ended up dead."

"I can't imagine that calmed things down?"

"Right, so some of the mutants, I think it was about third of the population, couldn't survive in areas without Tiberium, because of how mutated they were, so most of them began migrating with the retreating Tiberium. There were also mutants who were more comfortable with their own kind that followed them. At ground zero, the last large area that was completely infested with Tib, the mutants teamed up with some Nod guys that still believed Tiberium was the key to the next stage of human evolution and stormed the TCN hub there, not only did they manage to take it but they held it and shut it down. GDI wasn't willing to let what they did go unanswered but they couldn't just bomb them, it risked damaging the hub. So they mobilised a few million men to go in and retake it the hard way but the Secretary General, I think it was Xi or maybe Jackson, stopped them because he thought it would turn into a massacre, there were half a billion mutants at ground zero and most were expected to be supporting the guys controlling the hub. In the end the Secretary met with the mutant and the Nod leaders and brokered a deal, they ceased offensive operations against the TCN and GDI left them alone, in exchange GDI modified the TCN system so that the whole Mediterranean and North African area remained one giant yellow zone, that's an area of medium Tib infestation, with a small red zone, which is serious infestation, in Italy."

"So you managed to forge a peace then."

"Yeah, not everyone got the message at first but within a few decades things started improving. Today you'll even find mutants serving in GDI, though they're usually placed in specialist units."

"What about the mutants who tried to find asylum in the Republic, they said that they were fleeing persecution?"

"Yeah, they were mutants who wanted their own planet covered in Tiberium. Lead by some ex Nod soldiers who'd been wanted since the old wars, a few of them were people who just wanted to get off Earth, find some quiet planet somewhere and live away from regular humans but most of them were hardcore, violent types."

"So these mutants decided to take action against GDI."

"Yeah, the theory goes that they were going to dump Tiberium from the Titan onto one of the new colonies, but they decided to try and get out of GDI space when they realised their frigate was being tracked by a destroyer. Were you ever told how they got onboard the Titan?"

"No, the ones who made it to Zathrian never told the Republic officials much beyond that they had hijacked the ship."

"They got their hands on a shuttle, old one, we used them to colonise the solar system before the hyperdrive and they flew far out and turned on their distress beacon. When the Titan took them into their hanger, to help" Tucker nearly spat the last word in his anger "Four hundred mutants stormed out, overwhelmed the troops on board and chucked the rest of the crew out the air lock. When the Titan failed to check in with command the GDS Aquitaine went looking and found them just before they went to hyperspace, you can probably guess the rest."

"The Aquitaine followed the Titan, caught up with it in the Zathrian system and destroyed it and two Zathrian ships" Obi-Wan replied "with most of the mutants still aboard if I recall the events correctly."

"Spot on" Captain Tucker said as he looked at the computer mounted on his wrist "Well General, it was nice talking with you but I'm afraid we're about to reach my destination."

A minute later the shuttle touched down with a thud, although Obi-Wan couldn't see the outside of the shuttle he could feel several hundred beings in the area surrounding it. They hadn't landed on Earth though, the combination of its billions of life forms was like a beacon in the force and it was still many miles above him.

"Until tomorrow General" Captain Tucker said as he got up to exit the ship. As soon as he was out the rear ramp closed up and the shuttle lifted off now on a direct course to GDI's capital New York.

* * *

"Ah, my old friend, tell me what news do you bring?" Kane, Prophet and leader of the Brotherhood of Nod, asked as he rose to greet one of his most trusted Generals.

"Just the reports you requested before we set off Sir" the General replied as she handed Kane a datapad. "LEGION and I have been practicing with the salvaged and new units, the number of implants he's had to manage gave him some trouble but he's compensating effectively now."

The General's skin was aged and weathered and her icy blue eyes had been replaced years ago by bio-implants with red irises and green veins but the Prophet could still see the same determination and drive he'd seen in the young Commander who had lead Nod's charge into Washington during the Third Tiberium War. She normally wore a suit of black and red battle armour but having just come from her morning training and drills she was wearing a grey tunic and pants with black leather boots, she hated ever going without the protection of her armour but orders from Kane were always followed and Kane had ordered her to wear the tunic.

"And how have you found the training, your mission will require a human touch that LEGION cannot provide, you must be ready."

"Fighting Skywalker gave me a feel for the Jedi's tactics, the units LEGION and I've been drilling will probably fight almost as well as the Republic's veteran units. Don't worry sir, we'll be ready."

Kane nodded, he expected nothing less from one of his best Generals "Is there anything else?" he asked.

"Yes sir" the General replied and she handed him a sealed container "This was recovered by our cell on Tython. LEGION flagged it as being of interest too you."

Kane looked confused for a moment, a rare occurrence, then he opened the box and his look changed to one of wonder. He withdrew the item within, it was a rod, possibly an energy blade similar to the ones favoured by the Jedi but it seemed much too old. The Tython cell usually sent back ancient relics so if it was older then she was the General wouldn't be surprised.

"I wonder" Kane whispered to himself, he seemed to have almost forgotten about the other person in the room until the General coughed.

"Hmm, oh you are dismissed General. Be ready to depart before the end of the day. Remember your mission is vital to my plans" Kane said without taking his eyes off the rod.

The General bowed and left. As soon as she had done so Kane pushed a button on one end of the rod and a brilliant yellow blade of energy shot forth, the blade flickered as if unable to maintain a proper shape, a defect in the focusing arrays was to be expected from so old a weapon. That it still functioned at all was a surprise. The Prophet turned it over in his hands, examining every facet of its construction before he deactivated it and placed it back in its box, for when he could afford to be distracted by the past.

* * *

After a slightly jostling ride through the atmosphere the shuttle had delivered General Kenobi and his escort to the GDI Capital Tower in New York. The skyscraper, which had risen from the site of the old UN building, had once been one of the tallest buildings in the city but had since been eclipsed by the ever growing Manhattan skyline, which was now dominated by the two hundred and fifty story FutureTech Arcology.

When Obi-Wan's shuttle had touched down he had been surprised to find another just like his sitting on the landing pad midway up the building then he'd been amused to see Count Dooku, leader of the Separatists, being lead just as he was except that Dooku had eight GDI soldiers in their armour escorting him.

As Obi-Wan and his single escort passed the other group the Jedi called out "Do something wrong Count?"

Dooku gave him a smile that sent a small chill down Obi-Wan's spine and replied "No, GDI graciously agreed to my request for a larger guard, just in case the Republic tried to snatch me away."

The two groups kept walking in their opposite directions and the last Obi-Wan saw of his enemies' leader was him walking into the shuttle that had already been on the landing pad as the doors to the interior slammed shut. As the guard lead him to an elevator that whisked him upwards Obi-Wan wondered what reception he'd get if Dooku had gotten his word in first, shaped the General Secretary's opinion before Obi-Wan had even met GDI's leader. Of course Dooku may have come to smooth any feathers that were ruffled when the Separatists tried to kill the Titan refugees, the Republic was pressing hard against the Separatists on every front, and both sides were stretched thin trying to guard their holdings and maintain offensives so neither of them wanted GDI as an enemy.

After Obi-Wan was lead out of the elevator he was met by several humans in dark grey armour body armour with pistols rather then his escort's large powered armour and rifle. They ran a blue light, probably some kind of weapons scanner, over his body then one said "The door straight ahead sir, Secretary Yamamoto is waiting for you."

Obi-Wan nodded and walked towards the large double doors with the GDI crest on them, two guards by the doors opened them revealing a circular office that reminded Obi-Wan of Chancellor Palpatine's office on Coruscant.

"Ah, General Kenobi please come in, thank you for coming all this way" Secretary General Aiko Yamamoto said, she was a large woman with tanned skin and black hair that had been cut short, military style, with a few grey hairs making their presence known.

"Thank you for seeing me Secretary General" Obi-Wan replied as he took a seat in front of the desk.

"It's my pleasure General. Despite what some of my colleagues would prefer Earth can't stay out of the galaxy forever, thanks' to your people returning the Titan fugitives the last reason they had to keep us away from the Republic is gone. Although the hostility towards your people may remain for a while this may one day be looked back on as a fairly historic moment" On the surface she appeared like a kindly grandmother, open and warm but Obi-Wan could sense a no warmth within her only cold, hard feelings and a great deal of focus, she was quite the actor.

If she was open to improving relations with the Republic though Obi-Wan could work with her.

"General Secretary I'm sure you know that the Republic is locked in a war for its very survival against the Separatists and that they recently won a major victory in the Taurus Sector. Due to our commitments to other systems the Republic is hard pressed to muster the resources to secure the worlds threatened by this change in the front lines" he kept his voice steady and level, as if he were a business man presenting market statistics,

"An unfortunate circumstance General Kenobi, but I'm afraid that the Republic will not be allowed to pass through my people's territory to attack Confederacy in the Taurus Sector" Yamamoto replied, cutting straight to the point.

"But Madame Secretary if the Separatists take control of the Mid Rim sectors you'll be surrounded, what assurances do you have that they won't try to take your worlds when you're cut off from anyone who would help you. They have seized several neutral systems in the past by force, mainly ones that threatened their business interests and corporations in your space are becoming quite popular for equipping ground forces."

Yamamoto leaned back in her chair, the smile was now gone, and replied "If they are stupid enough to throw their machines away instead of fighting their original enemy then let them. General Kenobi, Count Dooku made it quite clear when he was here to apologise for the attack on the Titan Mutants, that he will respect my people's neutrality as long as we are completely neutral, with no favours given to either side, and I will continue to hope that the Republic will give our position the same respect the Confederacy have. No ships from any side will be allowed to pass through our space and that is the final decision of my government."

Obi-Wan tried to sense some crack in her resolve but he didn't feel any, Secretary General Yamamoto was determined to stick to her course "Very well then Madame Secretary, I will communicate your position to the Senate and the Chancellor" Obi-Wan said and he stood up to leave.

"Farewell General, hopefully this will not spoil any future contact between our people" Yamamoto replied, her warm smile now returned as Obi-Wan turned to leave, annoyed that his trip had been for nothing but a little glad that he'd be getting back to where he could do something more productive.

* * *

General Will Tucker had been on cloud nine all the way back to the New Beijing. As his drop ship touched back down, half an hour after General Kenobi had been returned to the ship, he'd been greeted by as many all of the off duty crew as had managed to fit into the hanger, surrounding drop ships and Storm Hawks with a sea of people. As he'd walked towards the ladders the crowd had parted before him, crewman shouted congratulations, officers who'd used their rank to get close shook his hand, people he couldn't even see were cheering him on. It started somewhere near the elevators to the armouries but the call soon spread and the crew started chanting "Speech, Speech" over and over. General Tucker cleared a path to a Storm Hawk fighter and climbed up on top, where he could see the whole place.

He made motions requesting silence then he shouted as loud as he could without sounding ridiculous "Well first off thank you all for meeting me like this, really. Second, I just want you all too know that while I'll be moving to a much better ship" a few people booed in response to that but Tucker payed them no heed "I'm leaving behind the best crew I've ever served with."

As the crew cheered the last part Will climbed down off the fighter and resumed walking to the hanger exit, the crew had begun to disperse and some left via the bow ladders others followed him towards the elevator. The elevators on the New Beijing were tiny metal boxes but Will still found himself sharing one with half a dozen crew. Half of them got off at Deck 8, the first crew quarters level, the other half got off at Deck 9, when Will was alone the elevator shot up, without interruption, to the Combat Information Centre.

When the elevator doors opened the ship's EVA AI announced in its smooth voice "Commanding Officer on Deck."

The crew manning the CIC stations turned, like in the hanger they cheered and shouted congratulations but they were on duty so they quickly returned to their duties. His Executive Officer came over to him and shook his hand "Congratulations WiIl."

"Thanks Jim" the General replied "How's the fort been while I was gone."

"Good, General Kenobi is back aboard and in his quarters. He sent a report to the Republic about how he crashed and burned," Major Jim Granger replied with a smile "But apart from your grand entrance that it's been quiet."

"You wouldn't have had anything to do with that, did you?"

"Me oh no, completely the work of some anonymous engineer" Granger replied with mock innocence.

"Right, well I'm gonna turn in for the night. Can you put us on course for the border?" Tucker asked.

"Sure."

Will turned around and once in the elevator tapped the button for Deck 9 but just before its doors closed he called out "Oh and they told me who the New Beijing's next CO is going to be."

For General Tucker the icing on the cake for his day was the shocked look on his friend's face as he shouted "What" and a dozen of the bridge crew stared at the closing elevator as well. He howled with laughter all the way to his quarters.

* * *

Hundreds light years from the font lines of the Clone Wars, far from both the watching eyes of GDI and the Jedi Generals was a fleet of forty ships, mostly Acclamator class assault ships but there were a few Venator Star Destroyers among them. In the flag ship the Commander, her Republic Navy uniform neatly pressed, was handed a message. All it said was

_'Kenobi's Mission has failed as expected, proceed cautiously but at best speed.'_

The commander gave the order and the fleet came together into several separate formations then all at once jumped to hyperspace.


	4. The Match Hits The Liquid Tib

Terra Nova was GDI's newest colony, its population of two and a half million was concentrated on its main continent with very few people travelling outside the main settlement areas. It wasn't considered a good planet to settle, the soil was poor for farming in all but a few regions and while the Idris Corporation was doing some surveys in the south there didn't seem to be much of a mining boom in Terra Nova's future, its main source of income was the Steel Talons' facilities on the planet, the task force paid to have its equipment shipped through the main colony. Now though, thanks to its proximity what was now GDI's only border with the Republic, Terra Nova now had a lot of interest from the military, since the Separatist offensive the timetable for fortifying the plant had been moved up. Starting a week ago ten GDI army divisions had been shipped in on top of the two already present, twelve automated Damocles battle stations had been deployed in orbit and the planet's existing fleet of four Guardian class destroyers had been reinforced by another pair of destroyers and a Saturn class battleship from the second fleet.

Every GDI Officer was taught about attacks like Pearl Harbour in WW2 and the Battle of Washington DC in TW3, battles where the attacker was able to achieve success because the defenders were not expecting an attack, despite this though the arrival of a Republic fleet in orbit came as a complete surprise to the planet's defenders and they were caught flat footed.

The fleet's eight larger, more powerful Venator class star destroyers moved to the front of the fleet as their massive air wings surged forward, to give the enemy a bloody nose before the two side's capital ships even exchanged fire.

The Republic and Confederacy prioritised fighters for destroying other fighters and when that failed most of their ships only mounted batteries of small rapid fire laser cannons as a last line of defence. GDI on the other hand had never placed as much faith in one man fighters as the galaxy's superpowers, so their ships were covered in anti-fighter lasers and missile launchers. Even as the Republic's fighters were launching from their hangers their enemy was tracking them on sensors and as they passed their mother ships' shields the GDI vessels launched waves of Quick-Draw anti-fighter missiles, each ship mounted dozens of pods and each pod was capable of lunching up to thirty missiles in quick succession. All the clones tried to avoid the wall of incoming ordinance, a few even tried to shoot missiles down, but there were enough that only half republic fighters came through the onslaught unscathed, most of them were ARC-170s whose stronger shields had allowed them to take the missile hits, hundreds of fighters were left as floating debris in space.

Within moments of their decimation, the remaining Republic fighters were engaged by GDI Storm Hawk fighters, they were agile multirole fighters but the Republic pilots mostly flew dedicated interceptor craft that quickly proved to have superior manoeuvrability on their side. The GDI pilots found that the only Republic craft they could easily overtake, the heavy ARC-170s, had shields to heavy for their railguns and missiles to overcome before they were set upon by nimble interceptors. The GDI fighters found that their best strategy was to stay close to their mother ships, whose lasers and Quick-Draw missiles easily overcame the heavy ARC-170s when firing together, and fire nimble anti-fighter missiles that could easily destroy the light Republic interceptors.

The first fire exchanged by the capital ships came from the GDI side, their railguns fired slugs at a fraction of light speed that would keep going until they hit something, unlike the Republic's turbolasers whose range was limited by how long the magnetic containment around the bolts of plasma stayed functional. The Republic ships in the front of the formation could've easily avoided the salvos but that would have thrown off their targeting locks, a moment after the GDI rounds started hitting their shields, the ionised depleted uranium rounds flattening their shields and floating away into space, the Venator's powerful turbolasers issued a response. Unlike the railguns and particle shields, when the massive plasma bolts hit the GDI firestorm barriers they disintegrated into nothing but exotic particles but like the particle shields they could only absorb so much fire before they collapsed and hulls would become vulnerable.

As the first wave of the Republic's smaller vessels, the Acclamator class ships, got into range the GDI fleet unleashed its most powerful weapons, their fixed Ion Cannons. The entire ship had to be pointed towards the enemy to aim it and it took most ships a minute to charge them up, but the massive energy weapons were unmatched in destructive power. The destroyers split into pairs when selecting targets, hoping that two Ion Cannon hits would be enough to bring down the Venators' shields but the GDS Demos, the Saturn class Battleship that served as flagship targeted all three of its bow Ion Cannons onto one ship.

When the Ion Cannon's fired three ship's shields collapsed outright and their hulls were quickly burned away by the massive energy beams, one exploded spectacularly as a beam managed to breach its hypermatter reactor core. Another Venator's shields failed as the beams that hit it were dissipating and within moments the entire GDI fleet had shifted its fire to take it out of the fight, the unfortunate Star Destroyer kept taking fire even when its hangers caught fire, its guns stopped firing and it engaged its forward engines to retreat from the battle. Instead of allowing a potentially salvageable ship to escape the GDI vessels unleashed dozens of heavy Truncheon anti-ship missiles from launch tubes. Most of the missiles were hit by defensive fire but only a few were destroyed thanks to their integrated firestorm barriers which kept them alive and allowed the missiles to penetrate the Star Destroyer's hull and a few decks, by vaporising the metal in its path, until the barriers dropped, triggering the missile's warhead within relatively unprotected corridors which thanks to the atmosphere still present allowed the explosions to create shockwaves and fireballs that wrecked huge areas of the vessel.

With four Venator's down the GDI vessels split their fire between the vessels that had been hit with Ion Cannons and now they were able to bring their smaller, turreted Ion Beams into play, which increased their effective firepower by a third. One more Venator's shields collapsed but it was able to retreat and another withdrew to the rear of the Republic formation before its shields were even dropped. But as more and more ships Republic ships began to fire on the GDI fleet the strain began to show as a section of a Destroyer's Firestorm barrier collapsed and it was gutted by turbolasers before it could turn and present another section of its barrier to the enemy.

Another Destroyer, the GDS Nelson, almost suffered the same fate but began rotating before its facing shields collapsed. A clever Republic Captain realised what his opponent had done and ordered his remaining heavy fighters to charge the GDI defences and fire all their proton torpedoes and laser cannons and the barrier sections that had been dropped to dangerously low levels by his ship's fire. The Nelson's missiles and lasers reaped a heavy toll but could not stop every one of the fighters that strafed its barriers then launched dozens of powerful proton torpedoes into its vulnerable hull. The Nelson seemed to ripple then it bulged outwards as a torpedo breached its starboard Tiberium tank, the volatile liquid mixed with the torpedo's warhead to produce an explosion that a nuclear device would struggle to equal, the explosion only grew larger when it breached the ship's other two storage tanks and then the main reactor, the series of explosions tore the destroyer apart and sent debris hurtling across the battlefield, with most of the largest pieces flying towards the Deimos.

The battleship's shields absorbed the first few impacts and Quick-Draw missiles were able to deflect others away from the ship but the impacts brought the shields down to dangerous levels and when the Republic ships started pouring fire onto the Deimos' already weakened firestorm barriers they collapsed and left the mighty battleship's hull vulnerable. The Deimos survived the first few volleys of turbolasers, which did nothing but carve huge canyons in its armour, as it tried to withdraw to the protection of Terra Nova's orbital battle stations. More of the Republic fleet focused fire on the Deimos though and even as it reached the edge of the Republic fleet's effective turbolaser range the ship had taken a huge amount of damage. Its inner hull had been exposed in several areas and a third of its weapons turrets had been destroyed by the furious bombardment.

As the Deimos retreated the other GDI ships concentrated their fire on the ships that were firing on the wounded battleship, hoping to give their flagship a better chance, and an Acclamator that had brought its engines to full power to stay in range found itself the primary target, its shields fell after a few minutes of concentrated fire and it was considered destroyed when its decks and gun turrets had been riddled be hyper fast railgun rounds and its bridge tower had been sliced off the ship by repeated strafings by Ion Beam cannons.

With his ship disintegrating around him the Deimos' Captain gave the order to abandon ship and ordered the other GDI ships to retreat from the battle. The four remaining GDI destroyers recalled their fighters and recovered a few lifeboats from other ships, the others set course for Terra Nova where they could find refuge with GDI forces on the ground. Then, after firing one last volley at the enemy, the destroyers through as much energy as they could into their engines to get away from the Republic fleet. Their enemy ignored them though, seemingly intent on eliminating Terra Nova's last space defences rather then wasting time on the escaping warships. As the destroyers jumped to hyperspace the first Republic vessels came into range of the Defence Grid's Ion Cannons.

The battle stations only had one Ion Cannon each but they were more powerful then any other Ion Cannon deployed by GDI and the station's massive Tiberium Reactor allowed them to fire every twelve seconds. The first ship's to enter range had had their shields depleted while fighting the navy ships and were easy pickings for the massive stations, whose Ion cannons destroyed eight ships in their first volley, including the last of the Republic's Venator class ships. The Republic ships returned fire and their combined firepower quickly overwhelmed the weak firestorm barriers of two stations. As the stations began charging up to fire the Republic fleet managed to destroy another one and when the stations discharged their mighty cannons this time they did not hit ships that had been weakened but rather Acclamators who had not yet taken any fire and they only destroyed three ships.

Before they could fire again the Republic fleet managed to destroy another two stations and their Commander ordered the ships in the front of the Republic formation to cease fire and pour all their available power into their shields. His calculation paid off because when the Ion Cannons fired they failed to destroy any Republic ships. The Commander ordered the ships to withdraw to the rear of his formation and the ships now in front to repeat the manoeuvre. The Republic destroyed another cannon while it was recharging and when the Ion Cannons fired again, just like before, they failed to destroy any ships.

The Ion Cannons were completely autonomous so they didn't do anything to avert their fate, they just continued to attack whichever ships were closest to them as they were steadily torn apart by the Republic fleet. Within a few minutes the cannons were dust, and the surviving clone troopers began readying themselves for landing with a hostile reception.

* * *

Aiko Yamamoto kept to a tight schedule and her meetings with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Count Dooku had forced to raincheck a lunch with the CEO of Massivesoft and a meeting with the Command Council, the body that controlled GDI's massive military. The council consisted of the Supreme Commanders of the army and navy and the commanders of bodies that actually had little to no troops under their command such as Intelligence Operations and Research and Development.

Under GDI's charter the General Secretary was the Commander In Chief of the armed forces but in practice the Generals ran their own show with her consultation. Her attendances at the Command Council meetings were usually just a formality, if something came up it usually wasn't during one of their meetings or if something needed her authorisation, such as authorisation to deploy the military outside GDI's territory, the Generals spoke to her when it came up rather then waiting for their next appointment.

Of the thirteen people who made up the council only eight of them were present in the flesh. The rest were communicating via video conference, feeds from their offices were put up on a screen at the end of the conference room, which was just off Yamamoto's office in CapitalTower.

"Now that we're all here, let's begin" Yamamoto said as General John O'Neil, head of Intelligence Operations, or InOps, and last member of the council to arrive, logged into the video conference "First item on the agenda, CIS and Republic fleet movements on our borders."

"Yes" General O'Neil said "Over the past week our observers in the Triton, Olympus and Zenith systems have identified between eighty and one hundred and twenty ships in each system. Deeper in the Taurus Sector are approximately eight roving battle groups of three Ring ships, twenty frigates and five cruiser each, based on their movements we believe that their mission is to root out any Republic forces that remain in the sector and to respond to any incursion into the sector."

"So Dooku means to respect our neutrality then" Supreme Commander Dryden, head of the Army, said.

"Most of analysts agree that they're going to leave us be"

"For the moment at least" Supreme Commander Zhang, Dryden's notoriously paranoid counterpart in the Navy, said "We should bring 14th Fleet to maximum readiness, able to deploy as soon as we need it, just in case they try anything."

"Agreed" General Tao, commander of the Sol Fleets, including the 14th, replied "I'll send the order as soon as we're done here"

"What about the Republic" Aiko interrupted, wanting to get the meeting back on track.

"We don't think that they'd try to force their way through our space" O'Neil replied "the shortest route is Terra Nova which isn't that heavily defended but after that you have to break Alpha Centauri or Eden and those two are military hubs. And we don't think they'd try a full scale invasion either, what Kenobi told you Madame Secretary is true, their forces are being stretched thin, mainly by Confederacy offensives in eight Sectors and the Republic's own offensive towards Muunlist, which has become Space Verdun."

"Space Verdun?" General Akok, the head of military R&D, asked incredulously.

"Sorry, that's we've been calling it over here. That new Confederate General, Grievous, has taken over Muunlist's defence and he's running things at a pretty high tempo, it's chewing up men and ships as fast as they can be deployed, but the Republic's advancing. If you want I can send you guys some of the video we have on file?"

"Maybe later. What about their ships on our borders?" Zhang asked.

"Whoever's in command of their fleets in the Maikan sector seems to have realised that he can't defend every world against the Confederacy" O'Neil said "Between four and five hundred ships have been gathered in the Corsen system, ready to respond if the Confederacy makes a move in that sector. No ships bigger then scout fighters are deployed on the border. But several informants among the common people on Maikan sector worlds have reported increased sightings of clone troopers, my men believe that they're reinforcing their ground troops on as many worlds as possible."

"What will the Republic do if the Confederacy overwhelms them in that sector, hold on" General Tao began to ask before his attention was drawn to something off the view the rest of them had of his office.

"Tao, what is it" Dryden asked, as General O'Neil's attention was also drawn to something off his screen. But the answer didn't come from the General but from one of Yamamoto's bodyguards who burst in and shouted "Secretary General, Terra Nova is under attack. We're evacuating you to Luna."

The entire room burst into motion, Yamamoto stood up and her bodyguards led her and the Command Council out into the corridor to an elevator. As they walked Zhang was giving orders to his subordinates through his mobile phone's earpiece "How many ships? You said they were Republic? Alright prep every fleet and get the 7th ready to set off for Terra Nova."

"Wait the Republic's attacking us?" Yamamoto asked as they were led into an elevator to the roof "I thought that they didn't have the resources to mount an attack?"

"Well Ma'am they obviously think that they do" Dryden replied as he started shifting from foot to foot then asked "What should we do about the Confederacy, we're going to have to deal with them wanting to ally with us if we're going to war with the Republic"

"I'll send an envoy to the Confederacy, to see if they'd be willing to form an alliance." Yamamoto replied as the elevator reached the top floor of CapitalTower and the bodyguards rushed everyone out and towards a dropship on the landing pad.

"You really think their trustworthy, look at what they did with the Titan mutants or on Naboo, people who are willing to use biological weapons probably aren't going to be the best allies" Dryden argued as they were herded into on the dropship and strapped themselves in.

"The enemy of my enemy is my friend you send the fleets to attack the Republic wouldn't it be better to have some support."

"I suppose that's a good point" Dryden conceded then he turned to Zhang who was and asked "Do we know anything about the Republic force at Terra Nova."

"About twenty of those Acclamator class assault ships have landed, communications have been jammed but O'Neil says that we may be looking at nearly four hundred thousand troops on the ground, with everything from tanks to heavy walkers." Zhang replied.

"Shit, we've only got about a third of that many men on Terra Nova" Dryden said "How soon can we try to retake orbit?"

"I'm working on that now, 7th fleet can be off within eight hours then it's a another eighteen till they reach Terra Nova." Zhang replied as their dropship lifted off the top of capital tower and began climbing towards orbit.

* * *

When the New Beijing had delivered General Kenobi to the Republic border, roughly in the same spot they'd picked him up, there had been a Republic star ship waiting for him, a Venator class star destroyer, General Tucker thought it was overkill for a simple pickup but according to his holonet transmissions Kenobi had sent and received while aboard the New Beijing the Jedi was heading straight back to his fleet on the front lines. In the hanger there was a repeat of the General's arrival, a honour guard of Zone Assault Troopers had lined up on either side of the cavernous room as the Jedi boarded his fighter. No words had been exchanged beyond a quick farewell though.

When the General's fighter had departed Tucker and Granger had returned to CIC, talking about Tucker's new command and who'd Granger would appoint to the XO position when he took over the New Beijing. They were still in a happy mood when the ship's announcement system announced red alert. The two men had raced to the CIC where Lieutenant Commander O'Donnell had been left in command. When they arrived the woman handed General Tucker a computer pad and said "Emergency communication for you sir, we're at war with the Republic."

"What?" Tucker replied as he took the computer pad from her and read it over, then threw it on the plotting table in the centre of the CIC and grabbed a microphone headset connected to the ship's announcement system "All hands, this is not a drill. Following an attack on the Terra Nova colony a state of war exists between the Global Defence Initiative and the GalacticRepublic. Man your stations and prepare for combat."

Tucker turned to the crew manning the CIC stations and asked "What's the status on that Republic ship, where's Kenobi's fighter."

"Kenobi's fighter docked almost thirty seconds ago sir. The star destroyer's shields are up and it's charging its hyperdrive but its weapons are powered down" a crewman replied.

"How close are they to being able to jump?" the General asked.

"No idea sir, they might be moments away though."

"Okay then, bring our shields online, keep our weapons offline but start charging the Ion Cannon and prepare Truncheon missiles" Tucker ordered. The missiles could be launched without giving any sign that they were about to launch until they were leaving their silos and hopefully if the Star Destroyer saw that the New Beijing was charging its ion cannon but not its other weapons they'd dismiss it until it was too late.

"Will, what about our fighters?" Granger asked.

"Keep them in the launch bays for now, I want to try and take that destroyer by surprise with our Ion cannon then whack em with the missiles." Tucker replied

"Sir, 30 seconds till the Ion Cannon is ready" a crewman said.

"Good, lock onto that star destroyer, fire when ready."

"Sir the destroyer is turning away" the crewman manning the sensor station said.

"They must be about to jump" Granger said "How long till the Ion Cannon?"

"20 seconds sir, we're locked on and ready to, shit they just jumped" the crewman manning the Ion Controls said with frustration.

"Never mind, lot of Republic ships in the universe and we're probably going to get right in the thick of it very soon" Tucker said "Stand down from red alert, go to yellow. Set a course for Earth and engage stealth systems."

"Do you want to get in touch with command sir?" a crewman asked.

"No, let's stay silent for now" Tucker replied as the New Beijing's hyperdrive activated and the destroyer leapt into hyperspace.

* * *

In Commander Richard Cameron's opinion the Republic's choice of armoured vehicles was mostly crap but he gave credit where credit was due and he admitted that, as an assault transport, the Clone Army's All Terrain Tactical Enforcer was a fairly impressive vehicle, not as impressive as GDI's own heavy walkers of course and absolutely shit as tank killers with their woefully underpowered coilguns, but still a nice vehicle. As the soldier in him observed its weaknesses, like its focus on killing lightly armoured targets and infantry and that glass cockpit, and how they might affect the battle ahead, the engineer in him thought about how he could improve it, armour up the front, stick a proper railgun and maybe a missile launcher or two on it. His way of thinking was the reason he'd been given command of GDI's Experimental Combat Division, better known as the Steel Talons. The division had been established following the end of the Second Tiberium War, as the military had been downsized so more resources could be allocated to combating Tiberium, and its goal was to maintain GDI's technological edge on the battlefield by developing new weapons and vehicles, then testing them in combat.

From his one of a kind Goliath command walker Cameron had a great view of about two hundred of the walkers, flanked by various lighter vehicles such as hover tanks and one man walkers, as they advanced towards his base, which the GDI soldiers stationed there had nicknamed the Perch. The Perch was the main GDI base on Terra Nova and was built in the style of the old Mount Everest complex, miles of tunnels and bunkers dug deep into a mountain in the middle of the planet's largest mountain range. Its construction had already proved its worth by withstanding almost an hour of continuous bombardment from orbit without even its barriers failing, even now the bombardment continued and the fortress showed no sign of cracking.

The Republic armour columns were currently advancing from their landing site in the plains in two prongs one towards Nova City, the colony's capital, and the other, smaller one, towards the mountains that contained the Perch. Already the skies had become a battlefield as Republic fighters clashed with GDI Storm Hawks and Orcas. Unlike the battle in space in atmosphere the GDI craft, which had been designed as atmospheric fighters with wings and flaps rather then being space fighters flown in atmosphere using repulsorlifts or VTOL thrusters to stay aloft, held their own against the Republic fighters and LAAT/i gunships and drove them back to their motherships in orbit. But when the GDI ground attack fighters had tried to bomb the Republic landing site they had been pushed back by the huge amount of anti-air defences in the area. The mobile anti-air batteries had been moving with the Republic advance, denying air superiority to either side, bringing it down to an old school battle of ground pounders.

Cameron had ordered the GDI forces near the capital and in the mountains to dig in but the 56th and 185th armoured divisions had linked up with his Steel Talons and now they were pressing towards the Republic column heading for the Perch. The plan was to blow through them and then press on to the landing site, cutting the larger column off from its supplies. His plan had been hampered though by the Republic's decision to start eliminating every satellite in orbit, which combined with the lack of air superiority brought scouting down to a very basic boots and binoculars approach.

His forward scouts were rapidly closing in on the last reported position of his opponent's own scouts. As soon as Cameron's scouts came to a small rise in the mostly flat plains the lead GDI tanks, six Marshal MBTs from the 56th, launched their short range Fly drones. The finger sized drones crossed the rise caught site of the Republic's forward scouts, eight lightly armoured Saber hover tanks. The marshals' commander ordered the tanks to advance and as soon as they came over the rise they stopped, began tracking the hover tanks, which all simultaneously turned and began speeding towards them, then their railguns fired and two of the hover tanks exploded spectacularly while three others crashed at over a hundred miles an hour into the dirt, by the standards of GDI all the Republic's armoured vehicles were woefully under armoured. The Marshals began to back up, back over the rise, but fired once more before they lost sight of the Sabers and destroyed the three remaining scouts.

With the Republic's scouts eliminated Cameron activated his radio and ordered "All units move up" and on his map the markers showing individual battalions began moving towards the rise the scouts had just fought from. Cameron had chosen to launch his main assault from there because if he needed to retreat later the rise could provide some useful cover.

"Commander this is Delta-3" the leader of the scout unit radioed.

"Go ahead Delta-3" Cameron replied as the tank established a video link with his walker "What's up."

"Slight problem sir, you should be seeing our video now" the man said as the video on Cameron's screen opened, it was the feed from a Fly Drone, showing him the Republic army advancing towards the scouts who were down behind the rise and hidden, they were about a hundred kilometres away. The AT-TEs were now in the lead and had formed a long line across, behind them he could see honest to god lines of infantry marching forward like a scene out of the Napoleonic Wars, with small one man walkers standing high above them and what seemed to be the big artillery guns way in the back. Hovering above the whole procession though was a pair of menacing Acclamator class assault ships, their massive turbolasers pointed forwards and slightly downward, as if right at the drone.

The initial reaction Cameron had was "Well shit"

"Thought you'd wanna know" the scout replied. It was going to be a problem.


	5. A Conspiracy and a Fine Wine

When Commander Cameron had asked if their ground troops could bring the assault ships, advancing a few hundred metres above the ground, down on top of the army they were escorting, the Steel Talons engineers at the Perch had run some rough calculations. Taking into account the combined firepower of the GDI divisions' artillery and tanks compared to the strength of the navy's heavy railguns and the strength of an Acclamator's shields which they estimated based on how much fire they'd soaked up during the battle in orbit. When he pressed them, seeing as time was precious, the answer he got was fire everything and don't stop shooting till the damn things exploded if he wasn't willing to wait for a proper answer.

While the artillery and heavy tanks attacked the ships they needed protection, so Cameron had the GDI army form into three lines. In the first were Whale IFVs, Marshall MBTs and Phalanx walkers which would cross the rise engage the ground troops. Behind them the second line which was made up of the army's lighter units, nearly 20,000 armoured infantry and Tiger support walkers, which penetrate the clone lines to keep to close for the ships' turbolasers to bombard them.

Meanwhile the massive Mammoth tanks, Mastodon walkers, Guardian and Oxen artillery units and the Commander's Goliath, would position themselves on and just behind the rise and concentrate their massive amounts of firepower on the ships. He'd also ordered the Orcas and Storm Hawks at the perch to load their massive anti-ship missiles and join the attack once the ships' shields were down, in spite of the defences they'd have to charge. To minimise the damage the Acclamators' turbolasers could do Cameron had spread his troops out as much as possible.

When the lines were formed and his subordinates had confirmed that they understood their orders, Cameron activated his radio and ordered "All units, advance."

The video he had of the thousands of armoured vehicles and infantrymen heading into action didn't have sound but Cameron mentally added the roar of electric engines and tracks and the thumps of the heavy walkers as they marched towards the battle. As they moved forwards Cameron began rubbing a ring on his right middle finger with his thumb, it was a habit of his that he unconsciously did when he was nervous, one of his ancestors had apparently shared the habit because part of the ring, the palm of the obsidian hand that was set in the centre, had already been smoothed and slightly worn away when his father had given him the family heirloom.

The tanks and walkers were fed targets by drones as they advanced and as they began to climb the rise they depressed their gun barrel and fired as soon as they their guns faced the clones. The first units to cross the rise were Marshalls and Whales, closely followed by the Phalanxes, who had been advancing while crouched to stay hidden for as long as possible but as the tracked vehicles crossed the rise they rose to their full height, allowing them to fire over the tanks and APCs, and began firing their main railguns at vehicles almost nine kilometres away, a range that the Republic army, except for their artillery and the assault ships, was unable to fire back at. The lead Republic vehicles, the AT-TEs, took most of the hits, with most only taking one railgun round or missile that hit their vulnerable glass cockpit, blew pilots into bloody chunks and penetrated through the thin cockpit rear wall, deep into the vehicles. Many of the walkers hit collapsed without power or pilots but a few exploded, sending flaming debris shooting into the air. The GDI vehicles' secondary weapons, grenade launchers, lasers and rapid fire railguns, began shooting into the clone infantry they could spot behind the lead republic vehicles.

The surviving AT-TE pilots realised how vulnerable their cockpits were to the railguns and turned around and started advancing in reverse, so that their thick rear armour pointed towards the enemy. Now instead of killing each heavy walker in one or two hits the GDI army's railguns required several shots to bend and deform the AT-TEs' rear armour before a railgun could penetrate the vehicle. They also started taking fire form the Republic artillery and long range blaster cannons but the high explosive shells flew forward only to exploded in between the two armies thanks to the GDI laser point defences which detonated them far from where they could do damage and the blaster cannons were designed to kill infantry and light vehicles, not the heavily armoured GDI force.

As the units behind them began to move up the assault ships turned the turbolasers on their underside towards the ground and fired, sending massive blasts of plasma into the GDI ranks, despite their heavy armour the tanks and walkers were not the space faring battleships the turbolasers had been built to destroy and several vehicles were completely vaporised by every blasts, vehicles that were near the impacts found their armour boiling away in the heat and a few Phalanxes were toppled by the blasts of superheated air. But the GDI soldiers did their best to ignore their losses, as they'd been trained to do, and fired at the enemy they could kill, the clones.

The next wave to come over the rise was made up of power armoured zone infantry and Tiger support walkers, which stood about twice the size of a man. When they reached the top of the rise they didn't start shooting like the armour had, instead the lighter units engaged their jetpacks which sent them hurtling towards the clones. Before they even hit the ground the infantry and Tigers had started shooting into the tightly packed ranks of clones, rapidly firing railguns and sonic grenades scattered the white armoured soldiers and anti-armour missiles slammed into tanks and walkers, eliminating many walkers but only destroying a few of the more heavily armoured tanks.

When the soldiers cut their jetpacks they landed in the midst of the Republic army, forcing the commanders of the assault ships to choose whether to bombard the GDI troops right below them, which would kill thousands of their own clones. The GDI troops were in a very vulnerable position by placing themselves in the midst of the enemy army, but it was safer for them there then with the first line, where they would be more vulnerable then any other GDI unit to a bombardment from the ships, the ships could not bombard the GDI troopers without killing hundreds of clones in the process, and as an added bonus their actions had thrown the carefully organised clone lines into chaos. Automatic railguns opened up, spitting hundreds of rounds a minute, and the clones began to fall in droves, although only third were actually dead, their armour was somewhat effective against blaster bolts and bullets from chemical slug throwers but it had never been designed to defend against the superfast projectiles spat out by the railguns. Many of the GDI soldiers didn't even aim, they just pointed their guns at the clones and held down the trigger and soon the ground was running with blood and clones covered in gore and small chips of bone from their fallen borthers marched towards their enemy looking more like zombies then soldiers.

The clones returned fire, but their response was limited because most of them didn't have a clear line of sight to the GDI soldiers thanks to the clones surrounding the GDI troops, but the Tigers stood in plain view of most of the army due to their height each began to take thousands of blaster bolts and dozens of missiles, which overwhelmed their ECM and laser defence systems, and soon the walkers had to duck down and cease engagement or they would be destroyed. The infantrymen's heavy powered armour could protect them from even the heaviest clone blasters but within a minute the squad medics found themselves having to deal with wounds as the zone suits' inbuilt life support systems were overwhelmed by the sheer number of minor injuries.

Finally, right behind the last Tiger to jump into the midst of the clones came the army's heavy units. Mammoth tanks roared forward on their massive tracks followed by the huge four legged mastodon walkers, the six legged goliath and the artillery units, tracked Guardians and Oxen walkers. The walkers had been ducking down as they approached the rise but now they rose up and unleashed their full firepower against the first assault ship. Railguns, some larger then the ones fitted to capital ships, and thousands of missiles and high explosive shells lit up the battlefield as they slammed into the ship's shields. The commander of the assault ships realised what Cameron's intention was and the ships stopped firing at the first line and switched to bombarding the third.

Now the Republic Army's remaining AT-TEs were close enough to the GDI second line that their anti-tank mass drivers would be effective. Some of the Whale's were destroyed in one or two hits, they were no where near as heavily armoured as other vehicles, and some Phalanxes toppled over as they took hits to their vulnerable knee joints but most of the GDI vehicles only took light damage in the initial exchange and continued to fire at the clone army. But soon even the Marshall tanks were beginning to suffer losses as their durability went up against the sheer weight of numbers of the Republic army was bringing to bear and numbers won.

As the third line was ravaged by turbolaser fire, extra support was rapidly approaching in the form of dozens of Orca and Storm Hawk fighters. Anti-fighter lasers on the assault ships began firing at the approaching craft and within moments the first Orca burst into flames as a blaster bolt pierced armour and ignited its fuel. By the time they reached launch range for their missiles another three fighters went down, but with their missiles released the fighters were able to turn for home. The anti-fighter laser cannons switched to targeting the missiles but they were unable to shoot down any of the small and fast weapons. When they hit the ship the shields began to flicker then they collapsed and the massive amounts of firepower previously kept at bay began to ravage the ship's hull.

As the ship's forward repulsorlift engines began to cut out and its nose tipped downward, Cameron ordered the men of the second line to get out from the clone ranks before the ship crashed to the ground. But many were pinned down by the clones that surrounded them and dozens were shot out of the sky as they tried to jump away, others were unable to get away in time, their jump packs were damaged by enemy fire or they were trying to save injured comrades who were unable to escape on their own. When the ship crashed to the ground just over three hundred humans died, along with thousands of clones.

The third line switched its fire to the second assault ship but even as the first rounds impacted on its shield the assault ship was gaining height, apparently the Captain didn't want to risk losing his ship. This was bad news for the clones though because now GDI's heaviest units were free to tear their army apart. The mammoths gunned their engines and leapt forward with a speed that seemed completely inappropriate for tanks their size. Their dual railguns spat massive pieces of metal at speeds that rendered any armour in their way useless. Many of the mammoths were hit by fire from the Republic's artillery and AT-TEs that were for the moment still alive, but most of the damage suffered by the massive tanks was only broken tracks and hulls dented by mass drivers and pock marked by blasters. With the more durable mammoths now in the fight the badly mauled companies of Whales and Marshalls that could still move began to reverse back over the rise, in some cases units had two thirds their vehicles completely destroyed, when the entire unit hadn't been completely wiped out, and none of the remaining tanks were unscarred. The Phalanxes waited until the Mammoths passed them then formed up behind the tanks, which shielded their vulnerable legs while the walkers could lend their firepower to the tanks' advance.

On the rise the artillery units had switched from automatic fire mode to coordinated bombardment, an EVA artificial intelligence took control of each shells guidance and each vehicle's targeting systems to direct each volley into the largest concentrations of clones and the largest vehicles that weren't burning piles of wreckage yet. Officers who were out with the troops were primary targets and the clones quickly began exchanging confusing orders as they were unable to keep up with who was in overall command of the army, which caused many clone officers to simply issue orders to the troops within a few hundred metres which forced battalions to more or less fend for themselves and prevented the clones from using their advantage in numbers against their enemy, and left them easy pickings for GDI.

The massive four legged Mastodon walkers took aim at the rapidly depleting numbers of clone infantry with their colossal railguns and fired submunitions, which weren't one large round but a bundle of hundreds of tiny rods designed to eliminate large numbers of soft targets, like a massive shotgun. The Mastodon's fired together and in an instant, thousands of clones were reduced to mixtures of shattered armour and bloody paste by the superheated, superfast rods and the massive pressure wave their passage created. After a few seconds to reload and recharge their guns, they fired again.

The clone army was in shambles now, its heavy vehicles were destroyed and burning, their air support had fled and the infantry that remained had become bogged down in the mud created by the sheer amount of blood flowing from almost a hundred thousand dead clones. In spite of all this they still tried to rally and attack, it seemed they wanted no quarter and so Cameron ordered that none be given, companies of GDI troopers and their Tigers were assigned to take out groups of clones that were resisting destruction by the artillery, which was now having difficulty finding targets as the railguns and lasers had heated the air over most of the battlefield to the point that thermal imagers couldn't pick out humans from the surrounding environment and the mix of smoke and steam made visual identification from above difficult.

The infantry advanced across the battlefield in a thin line, when they found clones who tried to resist they shot them, and they all tried to resist, even clones missing multiple limbs or holding their spilled guts in their arms threw themselves at the GDI troopers or died scrambling for the closest weapon. When they found one of their own who'd died during their stand in the middle of the clone army the troopers marked the position for later retrieval.

It was a grim task and few men spoke while they carried it out. Except for the occasional zap of blaster fire or rapid series of cracks from a railgun, which cast great, ghostly lights through the mist, the battlefield had fallen silent and Terra Nova's carrion population was descending on the remains, as if seeing the lack of noise as a signal that the humans had had their battle and now they could enjoy their great feast of cloned flesh. When the GDI troopers saw the animals start digging their maws into the bodies that were still intact, they shot them too.

* * *

In his Goliath Commander Cameron was trying to reorganise his forces in the wake of the battle. Losses had been heavy, a third of their vehicles were completely gone and half of what remained needed at least a day with the repair drones, but they still needed to push on to the landing site. Although whether they could accomplish that in the face of even more of those assault ships taking off to greet him and his men made his blood run cold, in any future battle where GDI was fighting without support from their own navy they needed a reliable counter. He filed that thought away for later.

There was also the matter of their wounded and the few clones they had recovered alive. He'd been informed that most of his men would be fine given a few days, and the remainder needed more serious treatment but were stable for now. Most of their wounded had died when the assault ship came down on top of them. Of the twelve clones they had captured, only two were in what could be called a medically stable condition, they had all been captured because they were unconscious when they were found by GDI troopers, battlefield medicine had made huge strides in the past few centuries but there was still a big difference between a combat doctor and a proper surgeon and most of those prisoners needed the latter if they were going to survive and having some prisoners to deliver to the Command Council might make up for his failure so far.

"You alright Lieutenant?" Cameron asked as his intelligence officer Mandy Kiernan, came up from the living quarters' bathroom on the deck below. The Goliath walker was currently downwind of the battlefield and in the hour since the battle's end the air had begun to fill with the stench of rotting meat and the unfortunate Lieutenant had been unaware of this fact when she'd taken advantage of the lull in the fighting to step outside for a moment.

"I'll be fine sir, I think I'm over it" the brunette woman replied as she wiped a small patch of bile from her lip "Although we should get a lot of HAZMAT teams down here when we're done, this place could become a breeding ground for disease if we're not careful."

As the Lieutenant sat down next to the map table, a private manning the communications console said "Sir, we have a priority message from General Casey incoming."

"Put it on the main screen" Cameron replied, Jack Casey was the commander of the ground forces that had recently been deployed on Terra Nova, Jack was his superior in rank but because his men had been deploy in Cameron's theatre the general had assumed the role of his second in command and the two of them had struck up the beginnings of a friendship after a tour of the Goliath walker turned into a debate over tanks vs. walkers. The last time they'd spoken was when Cameron ordered Jack to hold the Capital while he marched on the Republic's landing zone.

"Commander, can you hear me?" the Casey asked, as an image of him appeared on the command centre's main screen.

"I'm here General, how are things going over?" Cameron replied, three quarters of Terra Nova's military force, not including the militia, were currently operating under Casey's command. If things were going well for him then he might be able to launch the offensive in his place.

"I'm cautious of tempting Murphy but things couldn't really be going better." Casey replied, a massive grin on his face, "They flew in a few of those Acclamator class ships to support their ground troops but the city's defences gave them a real pounding and brought down two of them on top of their own guys."

"Your casualties?" Cameron asked.

Casey's grin disappeared then he replied in a more sombre tone "Heavy, the 1299th and 645th divisions are almost completely destroyed, they were bombarded by those assault ships before we brought them down and the 657th took lost a lot of good guys trying to plug the gap the ships made in our defences. There's a massive amount of collateral damage in the surrounding parts of the outer city."

"Civilians?"

"Only the dozen or so idiots who refused to evacuate, it can be rebuilt. What about you?"

"My force wiped out the clones heading for the Perch but our casualties were heavy as well, unless I get support from your forces I don't think I can assault the landing zone. What are you doing now?"

"Counter attacking, after the second ship fell they tried to move up the ground troops but we broke them on our defences and they pulled back. I've been pursuing them for the past twenty minutes but my scouts spotted something I think you'll want to see."

On the screen the picture of Casey's face was replaced by a video of the clones marching aboard their assault ship, the view shifted to show another ship lifting off.

"They're evacuating" Cameron said.

"Yep I had a UAV do a run over that landing site, before it was shot down I saw them packing things up pretty quickly, maybe they realised we're too tough a nut to crack. I plan on driving into that little evacuation of theirs and ramming a mammoth up their arses." Casey replied, his grin returned.

"No, pull your men back to the city."

"Why, we've got a perfectly good chance to do a huge amount of damage here?"

"Until the navy relieves us we're the only proper defence Terra Nova's got. For now those clones aren't a threat so take your men back to the capital and get them rested, we may have to fight again soon."

"Alright then Commander" the General replied before he shut down the link.

Cameron opened a link to his personal EVA AI "Alert all officers, get some more recovery vehicles out here. As soon as possible we're returning to the Perch "

* * *

The Jedi Council had assembled in their chambers in the central spire to view a transmission that had been picked up by a ship travelling close to GDI's border. Half an hour after the ship transmitted it to Coruscant a copy was sent directly to the Supreme Chancellor's office and several major news networks, it was already being mentioned on the Coruscant news stations and would be all of the galaxy by the end of the next rotation.

"Humans of Earth and her Colonies and beings of the greater galaxy. A week ago I met with representatives from both the Confederacy of Independent systems and the Republic and stated in no ambiguous terms that we would remain neutral in the war that has gripped the galaxy and would not allow our territory to be used by either side as a route to attack the other.

Four days ago, at approximately 1750 hours the Republic violated GDI's neutrality by launching an assault on our colony Terra Nova. Following this overt act of aggression I have declared a State of War and Emergency across Earth and her Colonies with the full support of the GDI Board of Directors in accordance with the Global Defence Act.

To my fellow Earthlings I say, take heart for we will weather this onslaught and overcome our enemies as we have always done and to the people of the Republic I say watch out, because we're coming for blood. There will be further announcements later today, so please stay tuned."

The message told the Jedi that one of their fears had come to pass, GDI had entered the war. At the top of the central spire of the Jedi Temple, Mace Windu turned to the other Council members as the transmission came to an end and said "This will have to be nipped in the bud."

"Agree I do, but how?" Yoda replied "Powerful GDI is and the resources for conquest or containment we do not have."

"What about the Core Armada?" Ki-Adi-Mundi, the Cerean Jedi Master, asked.

"Powerful in space it is, but it lacks ground troops" Yoda replied.

"And deploying the armada would leave the Core worlds vulnerable, we've already had to strip ships from it to reinforce other fleets" Windu said.

"What about this attack on Terra Nova she mentions" Obi-Wan interrupted "Our orders to the units in the Maikan sector were clear, they weren't to go anywhere near the border and Yamamoto was quite clear that her desire was to remain neutral."

"The analysts who forwarded this broadcast checked the fleet records, the only ships that have gone missing in the past few rotations disappeared far from GDI's space" Windu replied "I sense the hand of the Separatists in this."

"If we were to reveal the Separatists role, it could turn GDI to our side" Obi-Wan said, and several masters nodded in reply.

"How would we go about finding evidence though?" Windu said "GDI's security is tight at the best of times, if they are serious about this attack, it is likely that they will be especially alert."

"I have an idea" Master Tiin said "Obi-Wan, do you recall the Sith you killed on Naboo."

"Yes" Obi-Wan replied. It was not an experience he liked to remember, Darth Maul had killed his master, Qui-Gon Jinn, while he was trapped behind a force field and his rage over the Sith's act and the small amount of pleasure he'd found in ending the Sith's life had brought him much closer to the dark side then he liked to admit.

"I spent several years examining his ship, we haven't had a need of it and it reeks of the dark side but its stealth systems could get a team onto Terra Nova undetected."

"This ship, I recall. Its location, what is it?" Yoda asked.

"Currently it's on Naboo, a hanger in Theed" Tiin replied.

"And it's flyable?" Obi-Wan asked, Tiin's idea had merit but flying a ship that according to reports had booby traps that had killed the first engineers to examine it didn't really appeal to him.

"Yes, I flew three tests in the Naboo system" Tiin replied "Another pilot, a clone, tested the hyperdrive a year ago but since then it's been almost abandoned."

"Then I'll volunteer" Obi-Wan said "Anakin can pilot the ship and I'll take Ahsoka and some ARC troopers with me."

"Agree, I do" Yoda said and the other masters said similar words of approval.

"As do I" Windu said a moment later "How do you intend to get there?"

"Senator Amidala will probably be willing to make a sudden trip home at our request, GDI may strike systems close to Naboo so we can explain her trip as the Queen requesting her presence for discussions on how the Republic intends to handle such an eventuality. My team can stow away on her starship" Obi-Wan replied "Once we're on Naboo we'll board the ship and use the stealth system to depart undetected. As much as possible I'll try to keep things off any record."

"Very well" Yoda said, once he would have objected to the need for such secrecy but the Clone Wars had forced them to spin similar webs of lies before "Depart you must, as soon as possible."

* * *

After the heavily damaged _Kuat_ had gone into a space dock for repairs, Anakin had taken a shuttle back to Coruscant. The bright centre of the universe was the capital of the Galactic Republic and had been since the government's founding millennia ago. The city that covered the entire world had endured untold numbers of wars, diseases and political schisms but while the latest crisis was fought far from the orbit of the great planet, it was a symptom of the corruption that had infested Coruscant to its very core.

As he'd looked down upon the city of a trillion beings from the shuttle's cockpit, Anakin Skywalker didn't see any corruption, he only saw light. He could feel the billions of sentients who were going about their lives. He couldn't pick the Jedi Temple out from the rest of the city with his eyes but to those attuned to the force it was one of Coruscant's most visible features, it stood out like a flare in the black of space. Anakin also saw another bright spot on Coruscant, one that stood out more then even the temple but even a Jedi Master would struggle to find unless he was looking very hard, that light was his wife.

Almost no one knew that he was married to Padme Amidala, such emotional attachments were strictly forbidden by the Jedi, but it was common knowledge that they were close, which gave them an excellent cover for spending time together and while having to hide his love in public still frustrated him to no end, it meant he always had something special to look forward to when he returned to Coruscant. As soon as he'd finished briefing the Council about his battle with the stealth ship he'd gone straight to her apartment and after Padme got back from her last appointment for the day they'd spent the night together.

Anakin was lying in bed, one arm around Padme, when his communicator started beeping. He pulled himself up with a yawn and, groggily, scrambled to find his shirt. He slipped it on and smoothed the worst of the wrinkles and made sure that the camera was pointed at him with a window looking out over Coruscant in the background before he activated his communicator.

"Anakin" Obi-Wan said as a blue hologram of him appeared above Anakin's palm "I stopped by your quarters but you weren't there."

"I was up all night working on my star fighter. I left the Temple a while ago to go get a bite to eat" Anakin replied with the excuse he'd formulated before he'd left the temple the day before. He'd suspected for a while now that Obi-Wan knew, or at least suspected, about his relationship with Padme but his friend had yet to confront him which led Anakin to believe that either he didn't want to publicly announce what he knew and see him excommunicated from the Jedi, or Obi-Wan felt his suspicions weren't enough to see his former apprentice thrown to the wolves of an investigation. Or perhaps he approved of his marriage but hadn't said anything because it would be unbecoming of a Jedi Council member to endorse such a blatant violation of the Jedi code.

"Very well" Obi-Wan replied "How soon can you get back to the Temple? We have a mission."

Anakin thought for a moment, he was anxious to find out about this mission but once he left he may not see Padme again for a while.

"Give me two hours, I've only just been served" Anakin replied, it would give him enough time to have a quick breakfast with Padme then get back to the Temple within a reasonable amount of time.

"Alright then, we're meeting in room eighty three. Ahsoka and an ARC trooper team will be joining us. Anakin, GDI has declared war on the Republic"

"What, when?"

"General Secretary Yamamoto made the announcement almost half an hour ago, if you turn on your holovid you'll probably see the first news reports. I'll explain more in the briefing."

"Okay, I'll be at the Temple in an hour then" Anakin replied before Obi-Wan shut off his communicator and the hologram disappeared.

On the bed Padme, her usually neatly tied brown hair a mess, sat up and asked "Will you be leaving soon?"

"Yeah it seems so. GDI declared war on the Republic" Anakin replied as he walked over and sat next to her.

"Why? I thought they were determined to be neutral." Padme replied, as her look of half asleep, contentment was quickly replaced by wide awake, concern. They shared a close bond through the force and Anakin could feel her mind running at a lightning pace. His angel was more caring and selfless then most Jedi he knew, it was one of the things that made her unique, but she was still a politician and she had immediately begun thinking of how to present the information to advance her platform, or how her opponents might spin it and how she could counter their moves.

"I don't know why, Obi-Wan said I'd be briefed at the Temple, you'll probably be told when the Senate convenes today."

They were both silent for a few moments then Anakin asked "What do you want for breakfast?"

"I'll just have whatever they're serving and a double strength caf" Padme replied as she got up and tied her hair back and Anakin set about retrieving and donning the rest of his clothes.

"Okay, I'll have them send up an order before I leave" Anakin said before he kissed her then started to walk towards the door as Padme got up opened her large wardrobe to get ready for the day.

"Anakin, be safe" she called out before he got to the apartment door.

"I'll try" he replied with a laugh, they both knew that he really did try to stay safe but one of the hazards of his career as a Jedi and a General in the Republic Army was that he often ended up in trouble without actively doing anything to attract it. Before he left he activated the service console on the wall next to the door and requested breakfast for Padme, today's special was duon'tornathin'eonton eggs, wherever that animal that was he hadn't encountered it before.

Anakin made for the elevator quickly, using the force to make sure no one was watching before he went around a corner, or that the elevator was empty. His ride to the hanger level was uneventful but when he reached the apartment tower's hanger he found two men, a human and what might have been a rodian, talking by a speeder whose engine was running. Anakin ducked down behind a speeder, hoping that they'd leave soon but the two men kept talking and talking. Anakin might have just walked past and gotten into his speeder, but through these men Obi-Wan or another Jedi might accidently discover where he actually was and his lie might be discovered. He considered trying to sneak past but the hanger was small and there was too little cover for him to hide himself as he moved across to his speeder.

Anakin was about to try and use some force trickery to try and get the men to leave, or at least allow him to sneak past when the human got into the car and the Rodian walked back to elevator. Anakin tensed up, hoping that the Rodian wouldn't look down on his hiding place but he walked past without even a sideways glance. Breathing a sigh of relief Anakin stood up and ran as fast as he could to his speeder, he was anxious to get back to the Temple and away from a greater chance of his secret life being revealed.

* * *

In his private chambers on his current flagship, the _Duellist_, Count Dooku was enjoying a fine wine from his family's sizable stock, an excellent bottle from 2309. He rarely drank alcohol outside official events, because every five minutes something about the war required his attention but GDI's declaration of war with the Republic and a message he'd received from Secretary Yamamoto requesting the possibility of their armies coordinating their strategy had put him in a mood for celebrations so he'd allowed himself to pop the cork on a bottle of the red liquid.

As the Count leaned back in his chair with a contented sigh his communicator began beeping. He checked the signal's origin point but the system was unable to tell him where it had come from, that meant only one of a very small group of individuals was on the line and all but two of them only contacted him when he contacted them first. That meant that it was either his master, Darth Sidious, or his new associate calling. When Dooku activated the hologram and a human with a hood over his face appeared on the small pedestal built into his desk he said "What is thy bidding my master."

"I understand you have been offered an alliance by General Secretary Yamamoto" Sidious, who would probably be greeted as Chancellor Palpatine by anyone who met him on the street, said.

"Yes, she has asked to meet with me on Raxus" Dooku replied.

"You must do everything you can to ensure that GDI's fleet is integrated completely into yours. It is a factor that cannot be allowed to act outside our control."

"Of course my master, but it will be difficult. When I met with her on Earth she seemed quite sure that the Confederacy was behind the attack on the Titan mutants and she will not trust us easily"

"Nonetheless it must be done, at the very least you must minimise GDI's role in the war. The attack on the mutants was one thing but the attack on this Terra Nova points to their being a new player in our game, one with a great deal of resources, and we must act quickly to limit the amount of damage he does."

"Have your agents found any information about the attack? None of mine have turned up anything. Although I plan to offer some medical ships to help anyone hurt on Terra Nova, which may allow some of my men to get close."

"An excellent plan my apprentice. My agents will continue to search where they can but I am not hopeful. Your operation may prove to be our best chance to gather information, our new opponent has covered his tracks incredibly well so far. May the force be with you."

"And with you" Dooku replied as Sidious shut down their link. He was just about to sit back and relax when his communicator started beeping again, when he checked the origin point this time it was the same as before, and his master was not the kind of person to suddenly call back after a conversation. When he activated the holoprojector he was presented with a rapidly shifting blob of static, his new associate.

"I was just toasting your success" Dooku said.

"Our success Count, we are in this endeavour together" the thing on the other end replied, like it did with its appearance it used some kind of scrambler to mask its voice, it could be male, female or lack a gender altogether, not even the force gave Dooku an indication of what he was dealing with.

"I do wonder though, how you benefitted from what's just happened? GDI is set to ally with me as you promised but most of the ships you salvaged have probably been destroyed" Dooku asked, just how the being on the other end benefitted when the wrecks it had paid him handsomely for permission to salvage had been presumably destroyed by GDI had nagging at him for most of the day.

"The Republic has another thorn in its side. That's enough for me" the thing said "I trust a certain individual has not been informed of our deal?"

"No he hasn't" Dooku replied, he had considered informing his master of this new player but he had decided against it. Over the past year Dooku's personal allies had had an alarming tendency to turn up dead and he put the blame with his master fearing just how much power the Count was gathering in the Confederacy while he remained on Coruscant. There was also the matter of this being actually knowing that he answered to someone else, which spoke volumes about its intelligence gathering capabilities.

"Excellent, for now then I shall bid you farewell. But we shall speak again." the thing replied before the hologram switched off on its own and Dooku leaned back in his chair and took a long sip of his wine. He was running an awful risk with his current course, but he was reasonably certain that if either his master or his new associate turned against him he would still come out ahead. The risk was great, but the reward could prove to be even greater.

* * *

In his dark chambers Kane sat back in his chair, a smile on his face. Up until this point things had proceeded just as planned, but now things would start to get very chaotic, very quickly, although that too was part of the carefully structured order of his plan, that thought caused him to chuckle slightly. The material cost of the operation had been staggering but he judged it well worth every credit. GDI always had required a great big push from time to time but he was sure that they would soon prove that they were still one of his most effective tools.


End file.
